A disaster looms over villages in Gurugram

A disaster looms over villages in Gurugram

"No one ever objected about the construction of buildings that are made up of bad-quality material," said Abhay Kumar Srivastava, chief of Disaster Management Department of Haryana.

After seven people were killed when a four-storey building collapsed in Ullawas village, Gurugram, on January 24, the Disaster Management Department of Haryana warned the local monitoring authorities, including the DTP Gurugram, Huda and the MCG Gurugram that more such tragedies may possibly occur.

According to reports, around 40% of the total population live in urban villages like Sukhrali near IFFCO Chowk, Sikandarpur, Nathupur and Chakkarpur near DLF cyber city, Ullawas, Ghata near Sector 56, Tigra, Jharsa near Cyber Green, Khandsa near Hero Honda Chowk and villages surrounding to IMT Maneser - where many old buildings are "made of bad-quality material" and several multi-storey buildings are constructed in congested spaces.

"In a bid to develop Gurugram over the last few years, more than 10 villages have been turned into urban villages located near BPO hubs, call centres, industries and business centres. After turning these villages into commercial hubs, the seven to eightstorey buildings have been put on rent," said Abhay Kumar Srivastava, chief of Disaster Management Department of Haryana.

Srivastava said, "These villages have several multistorey buildings and the property owners are providing putting these building on rent. These villages come under the MCG Gurugram authority. No one ever objected about construction of the buildings that are made up of bad-quality material. The monitoring authorities are responsible for such mishaps and it will continue until the residents of Gurugram do not let go their commercial interests."

MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav told Mail Today, "These villages come under Lal Dora and the villagers think that they can construct multi-storey buildings whenever they want. However, we have a team that keeps notes material being used for the construction and also the height of the buildings. We will also hold a campaign rally from Feb 1-5 for the purpose."